Santa Barbara Natural History Museum
Santa Barbara, California
How do museums keep exhibits relevant?
Founded in 1916, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (SBMNH) is currently home to more than 3.5 million specimens and showcases remarkable diorama exhibits. In 2018, SBMNH underwent a major renovation. As part of this effort SBMNH engaged Beaudry Interactive (b/i) to provide our technical expertise with the upgrade of the museum’s content management solutions and to develop guest-facing digital overlays for physical artifacts. The museum also asked b/i to develop tools that will empower its staff to update relevant content on a regular basis without help of outside technical experts.
b/i worked closely with the museum staff to help identify points of engagement—for both guests and staff—and to define their content management (CMS) process with the goal of ensuring relevance and longevity of this investment.
Keeping in mind today’s younger, tech-focused audience, and the demand for deeper levels of engagement, b/i developed innovative solutions that realized SBMNH’s vision of a hands-on “learn by doing” experience with exhibits that can’t be touched. Following the completion of this project b/i’s proprietary software can be found behind each exhibit within renovated halls of the museum. This software allows the museum’s staff to easily update all content and touch points and even control sensors to keep it relevant and fresh, all without ever opening the software.